Posts tagged with Jayhawks

Former Boston Celtics Paul Pierce holds the NBA championship trophy that he won with the team during a ceremony to retire his number following a basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Boston, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

From this day forward no member of the Boston Celtics will ever again wear No. 34.

That number will forever be associated with the name Paul Pierce and hang in the rafters above the Celtics’ signature parquet floor, with the likes of Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale.

The best NBA player from Kansas since Wilt Chamberlain, Pierce officially became a legend Sunday in Boston, when the franchise with 17 championships retired his jersey.

“Words can’t even describe it right now,” Pierce told reporters on the eve of the ceremony.

“When I got to this day, I was like, ‘It came so fast.’ I remember like yesterday the day Wyc (Grousbeck, co-owner of the Celtics) called me and was like, ‘We want to retire your jersey.’ And I’m like, ‘Really? It happened already?’” recalled Pierce, currently in his first year of retirement. “Just to see and be with all the people who helped me on this journey, to get to this point to where I finally put a close on my career and leave a legacy here in Boston, it’s just good to bring all those people in one room. Because it wasn’t just me by myself to get to this point.”

If you aren't tuned in right now for Paul Pierce's jersey retirement ceremony then what are you doing!? 🤔🤔🤔

Pierce figured the festivities, which followed Boston’s game against Cleveland, would toy with his emotions, and he was right. The 40-year-old who grew up in Inglewod, Calif., played three years at KU under then-coach Roy Williams and became the face of the Celtics for the bulk of his NBA career fought back tears at one point, while addressing cheering fans inside TD Garden.

“If I never make the Hall of Fame,” Pierce said during his speech, “to go up as a Celtic with my number here, that’s probably all I can ever ask for. That’ll be enough. That would be enough for me.”

Former Boston Celtics Paul Pierce, left, raises a banner during a ceremony to retire his number following an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Boston, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

A 10-time all-star and MVP of the 2008 NBA Finals, Pierce’s statistics rank him among the very best to ever wear the iconic green and white of the Celtics.

Only John Havlicek (26,395 points) scored more for the Celtics than Paul Pierce did (24,021) during his 15 seasons with the renowned franchise.

Former Boston Celtics Paul Pierce comes onto the court during a ceremony to retire his number following an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Boston, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Pierce also ranks in the top 10 in Celtics lore in games played (third, 1,102), minutes played (third, 40,360), field goals made (third, 7,882), offensive rebounds (eighth, 1,008), defensive rebounds (third, 5,643), total rebounds (seventh, 6,651), assists (fifth, 4,305), blocks (fourth, 668), points per game (third, 21.8) and steals per game (eighth, 1.4).

It’s those kinds of numbers that earned Pierce the respect of his peers and former Celtics giants alike.

“One of the greatest things that can happen to an athlete is to retire as a Celtic,” 11-time champion Russell said in a video message to Pierce. “I’m very proud of you, and I’m proud that you were a Celtic.”

Kevin Garnett, who teamed with Pierce and Ray Allen to lead Boston to the franchise’s most recent title, in 2008, remembered Pierce for his swagger and scoring ability.

“Part of trash-talking is backing it up. And I would say his level of trash-talking is about the doing, and him telling you he’s about to do it,” Garnett said in a video tribute. “You hear these tales about Larry Bird — ‘Hey, I’m comin’ down here fixin’ to shoot the 3 right in your face.’ Well, our generation that was Paul Pierce.”

Here are a few of the countless videos and photos dedicated to Pierce’s career and achievement that popped up on his memorable day:

When Joel Embiid makes his NBA All-Star debut in a few weeks, he will do so as a temporary teammate of two-time league MVP and two-time champion Stephen Curry.

Golden State’s 3-point-shooting savant, as the leading vote-getter in the Western Conference, earned a captainship opposite the East’s most popular superstar, LeBron James. The two perennial all-stars and NBA Finals opponents spent a portion of their Thursday afternoon drafting their teammates — a new twist on the league’s annual February showcase.

Where exactly Embiid, the 7-foot-2 Philadelphia center and former Kansas standout, fell in the pecking order isn’t widely known at this point. The NBA opted not to televise the all-star draft this year (more on that later). All we know for sure is James had the first pick and both he and Curry had to select from a pool of starters — as voted on by fans, media and players —before picking up any of the reserves — chosen by the league’s coaches.

Embiid will take the floor with not only Curry, Feb. 18, in Los Angeles, but also Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden and DeMar DeRozan. The “Team Stephen” starters will open up the exhibition at Staples Center versus “Team LeBron,” featuring Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and Kyrie Irving.

Considering Harden and Antetokounmpo are two of the premier players in the NBA, it’s safe to guess Curry selected Embiid fourth or fifth overall.

While the lineups will fluctuate greatly during the course of the game it should be entertaining to watch Embiid try to take on New Orleans bigs Davis and Cousins for stretches. But look for the Sixers’ star to really put in work when he gazes across the court and sees Kristaps Porzingis headed his way. Embiid beat out the New York star for the final available front court starting spot in the East, prompting Porzingis to tell reporters, “players know,” he should have been a starter over Embiid, referencing his peers casting more votes for the Knicks’ unicorn than Philly’s trash-talking center.

Curry, speaking with TNT’s Ernie Johnson on NBA Tip-Off, referenced Embiid’s personality and social media prowess when reviewing the teammates he picked.

“Joel’s obviously gonna be a future
all-star for plenty more years, and
this is his first go-round,” Curry
said. “Maybe one day that weekend
he’ll take over my Twitter account and
say some jokes for me or something.”

Fans and followers of the NBA would’ve enjoyed the chance to watch Curry and James take turns deciding the all-star rosters, perhaps groaning when the other selected someone before his opponent had a chance to swoop in or talking trash about which team looked more devastating.

And you know Embiid — averaging 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.9 blocks to go with 49.1% shooting — would have plenty to say after the fact about where he did or didn’t go during the draft.

We might get to see all of that and more play out in 2019. James said on TNT after the teams were unveiled: “This thing should’ve been televised.”

Curry agreed, and said while the process was cool behind closed doors, “Hopefully we’ll both be captains again and we can broadcast it to the world in real time.”

The New York Times’ Marc Stein reported there was enough “union pushback” from the NBA’s players to inspire the league to not televise or stream the all-star draft this year.

My understanding is that the new captains-pick-their-teams format was indeed hatched with the full intention to televise the draft. But union pushback -- NOT unanimous pushback, but enough -- scuttled the plans to put it on TV

The National Basketball Players Association released the following statement to SB Nation on the matter:

“It was the absence of a consensus by
prospective players likely to be
affected that led to support for a
reveal (instead of a televised draft).
Whether a decision to broadcast the
draft will be made after this year’s
game, that will be determined going
forward.”

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, left, and New York Knicks' Michael Beasley battle for position during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Dec. 25, 2017, in New York. The 76ers defeated the Knicks 105-98. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

For the first time since Wilt Chamberlain’s final season, in 1973, the NBA’s All-Star Game will feature a Kansas Jayhawk in the starting lineup.

The league announced the five starters from each conference Thursday evening, and second-year center Joel Embiid landed the third frontcourt position in the East.

Cleveland mega-star LeBron James led all Eastern Conference players, with more than 2.6 million fan votes, followed by Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had more than 2.5 million. But Embiid, with more than 1.2 million fan votes beat out New York’s Kristaps Porzingis in that category. The selection process also incorporated media and player voting. Embiid finished third in voting among those who cover the NBA, as well, while his peers only provided him with 94 player votes, six behind Porzingis’s 100.

Embiid won’t necessarily team up with “King James” and “The Greek Freak,” though, at next month’s exhibition, in Los Angeles. A new format for the annual spectacle will have a captain — the leading vote-getter — from each conference draft a team of his choosing. After all 12 all-stars from each conference are unveiled, James and Golden State’s Steph Curry will select their teammates, beginning with the pool of starters that were announced Thursday.

Here are the starters from each conference: James, Antetokounmpo, Embiid, Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRosan, from the East; Curry, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins, from the West.

Reserves are voted upon by NBA head coaches and will be announced Tuesday. This coming Thursday, the rosters, as drafted by James and Curry, will be unveiled.

Embiid is the first all-star from Kansas since Paul Pierce, who last made it in 2012. Pierce was a 10-time NBA All-Star but never voted a starter.

Plagued by injuries from the time Philadelphia drafted him third overall in 2014, Embiid already this season has matched his total games played from his rookie campaign a year ago (31).

Embiid’s 23.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 blocks in 31.3 minutes a game make him one of the NBA’s elite centers and an easy choice to represent the Sixers at All-Star Weekend.

When ESPN announced young Philadelphia star Joel Embiid would appear on “First Take,” one had to hope it would mean a one-on-one debate between the charismatic big man and the daily morning show’s rambunctious personality, Stephen A. Smith.

Sill, the segment provided the 23-year-old face of the 76ers to talk a big game, as he is accustomed to doing.

Smith asked Embiid whether he agrees with assessments from those observers who consider him the best big man in the NBA. Of course, the second-year center from Kansas agreed.

“Yeah, definitely. Especially when you
look at the way I play the game,” said
Embiid, averaging 23.7 points, 11.1
rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 blocks
entering Friday night’s game versus
Oklahoma City. “I mean, I feel like
offensively I can do everything — be a
play-maker, score the ball, set up my
teammates. And defensively, I feel
like I’m the best defensive player in
the league. So I just try to do my
job, and then at the end of the day
it’s all about winning. As long as we
win games I think it helps me.”

The Sixers (14-13) have created buzz throughout the season’s first couple of months, with Embiid and rookie Ben Simmons forming an intriguing one-two punch.

When Embiid thinks about teaming with the 21-year-old, 6-10 point guard from Australia for years to come, he envisions greatness.

“Obviously it’s going to take a lot of
growing pains and a lot of learning to
do, and I think we’ve been doing a
great job as far as learning how to
play with each other,” Embiid said.
“But I think we have the potential to
be like one of the most dominant duos
ever. So we’ve just got to keep
working together. We’re both so young,
and I love playing with him — I’m sure
he loves playing with me, too — so I
think we have great potential.”

Off the court, Embiid has picked up fans, as well, thanks to his sense of humor. Smith, naturally, had to ask about Embiid’s social media interactions with various opponents.

“First of all, I don’t ever start
things,” Embiid said. “People might
not know that. It may start in a game
with guys being extra-physical and
just talking. I’m just going with the
flow. I’m like, ‘Oh, you want to talk?
You want to talk ----? Well, I’m gonna
kick your ---.' I mean, I never start
things. … If you want those problems,
that’s your fault.”

That prompted Smith to pitch a slogan for Embiid: “How do y’all like this? You start problems with The Process, The Process is gonna handle you.”

The big man’s assessment allowed him to clown Smith the way he might an opposing center:

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21), of Cameroon, drives against Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, in Minneapolis. The 76ers won 118-112. (AP Photo/Hannah Foslien)

With so many Jayhwaks making a living in the NBA it’s not difficult on any given day to find a box score with a former Kansas basketball standout appearing for each team. But Tuesday night’s schedule provided a pair of reunions for one-time KU teammates who likely always will be tied together.

The brightest star associated with Kansas, Joel Embiid and his Sixers beat Andrew Wiggins’ Timberwolves in overtime, and one hard-nosed rookie picked up a win over another in Sacramento, where Frank Mason III’s Kings prevailed over Josh Jackson’s Suns.

Embiid’s greatness beamed down the stretch in Minneapolis, as he put up 28 points, 12 rebounds and a career-best 8 assists. Per ESPN, the last 76er center to hit those numbers in those categories was another famous Jayhawk, Wilt Chamberlain.

But Embiid’s individual production, he told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt during a post-game interview, wasn’t what made him most proud about the night.

“We fought back,” Embiid said of a
game that featured several lead
changes in the fourth quarter, before
Philadelphia won in OT, when Embiid
scored the first basket of the extra
period and later nailed a 3-pointer to
extend the lead to seven. “We went
down in the fourth and then we (faced)
some adversity and we won the game.”

The Sixers, so often maligned the past several years for not competing with the rest of the league, improved to 14-13 on the year and 7-7 on the road.

“We’re getting better. We’ve got a lot
of growing to do. We’ve been doing a
better job, especially this year,”
Embiid told Van Pelt, adding his first
three seasons with the organization —
two of which he missed with injuries —
were tough to swallow. “To be in this
type of position where we can actually
go into the game and know that we have
a chance to win and we’re going to win
is always great.”

One wouldn’t have known it from Embiid’s near triple-double in a career-high 39 minutes, but some back soreness forced him to miss Philly’s two previous games — road losses at New Orleans and Cleveland — and he was a game-time decision against Minnesota.

“I missed the last two games and I
don’t want to be that guy who’s always
missing games,” said Embiid, who has
played in 22 of 27 this year. “So I
pushed through and we got the win. I’m
excited to go back home and get some
more wins.”

Though fourth-year forward Wiggins has proven far more durable than Embiid, he didn’t impact the game as much as his fellow Jayhawk this night. Wiggins shot 8-for-24 from the floor and 1-for-7 on 3-pointers, while scoring 20 points and grabbing seven boards.

His most impressive highlight came when he stole a bad Embiid pass and scored over the 7-foot-2 center.

Arco Arena, the former home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, had a notoriously noisy reputation, thanks to the cowbell-wielding fanatics who occupied its seats.

Brand-new Golden 1 Center, the Kings’ new permanent residence in California’s capital, hasn’t had the chance to become so renowned yet.

But you know some holdovers from the glory days of Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Vlade Divac are just dying to bust out those old noisemakers again.

And much like fictional music producer Bruce Dickinson famously demanded more cowbell during a Blue Oyster Cult recording session fabricated by Saturday Night Live years ago, Kings fans these days have to be clamoring to see more of a certain backup guard.

“Guess what! I’ve got a fever! And the
only prescription … is more Frank
Mason!”

Sacramento (7-17), near the bottom of the Western Conference standings entering Friday’s game at New Orleans, isn’t winning. That’s hardly any fault of Mason, who is averaging 9.9 points and 3.9 assists in 20.5 minutes over his past 10 games — a stretch during which the 5-foot-11 reserve has shot 49.3% from the floor and nailed 60% of his 3-pointers. The Kings haven’t made the playoffs since 2006 and are in the early stages of their latest rebuild, still less than a year removed from trading away franchise player DeMarcus Cousins.

“If not the same five (players), it’s
been like the same three or four,”
Mason told The Bee. “I think we’ve
been playing pretty well together,
first or second unit. We just have to
keep doing that, cut out the
transition points and take a lot more
pride on the defensive end.”

According to the most recent data available from NBA.com, the five-man lineup in which Mason has most appeared for Sacramento puts him with Buddy Hield, Willie Cauley-Stein, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kosta Koufos. That particular combination has a net rating of +7.9, while most of the team’s other frequently-used lineups have massive negative net ratings.

In some alternate reality where Joel Embiid wasn’t one of the more dangerous players in the NBA with the ball in his hands, the 7-foot-2 center from Cameroon would still be playing for Bill Self inside Allen Fieldhouse. Just ask him.

That idea seemed more realistic to Embiid when he arrived in Lawrence, in 2013, than his current existence. As the entertaining Philadelphia center detailed recently on The J.J. Redick Podcast for The Ringer(NSFW, so throw on some headphones), he played J.V. basketball during his junior year of high school, so a redshirt season at Kansas didn’t exactly fall into the category of absurd.

As we all know, though, Embiid’s basketball career arc instead took on an unthinkable path, making him a one-and-done big man who went No. 3 overall in the 2014 draft, far ahead of the 2017-18 KU basketball season, his would-be redshirt senior year.

Crazy as it may sound, the second-year pro who takes averages of 23.1 points, 11.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 blocks for the 76ers into Monday’s game against Phoenix, still doesn’t feel as though he has made it in the NBA — even though he looked like he belonged from his very first game.

“I get to the league. I miss two
years. I lose my brother (Arthur, who
died in 2014), so I go through a lot,”
Embiid explained to Redick. “And when
that time came for me to come back on
the court and play my first game — I
think my first game I played like 24
minutes — and, mind you, in college I
wasn’t a scorer. I was just rebounding
the ball, blocking shots, pretty good
defensively, offensively regular hook
shot, like typical big man.

“My first game I think I scored 20
points in 24 minutes (actually 22).
And that’s when I figured out, ‘Hey,
it’s easy.’ It’s not easy to thrive in
the league or score in the league,”
Embiid clarified. “And I was playing
against Steven Adams, a big dude, like
really good defensively.”

Embiid has teamed with rookie Ben Simmons to get formerly woeful Philadelphia out to a 13-9 start — Redick referred to both young players as Philly’s “superstars.” The big man whose career took off at Kansas said he has not yet in the NBA experienced a moment where he feels like he’s “really ----ing good, like top-five player in the league.”

However, there are certain times on the court when Embiid pulls off, say, a Hakeem Olajuwon-worthy “Dream shake,” and he thinks “Did I just do this?” The 23-year-old phenom said those instances inspire him.

“That just shows me I’ve got so much
more to work on and so much more to
show,” he said.

Redick asked his teammate why scoring a career-high 46 points a few weeks back against the Lakers didn’t make him feel as though he had arrived and whether it will take a championship to achieve that.

“I definitely want to win. I think
everybody around me knows I’m
competitive,” Embiid said, “and I play
while I’m hurt, I play while I’m sick,
I push myself just because I want to
help the team win. The 46-point game,
I wouldn’t consider that a big moment,
because I didn’t feel like I was hot.
I didn’t feel like I was just making
shots all over the place. I was just
playing basketball.”

The iso possessions, post-ups and “regular moves” Embiid pulled off that night, he explained, didn’t mean he was on fire.

“It wasn’t like I was Klay Thompson or
Steph Curry.”

Embiid, of course, isn’t just known in the NBA for his incredible abilities or missing the first two seasons of his career due to injuries. Philadelphia’s outgoing big man also has turned into a social media king. Sometimes he even feels inspired to call out some opposing post player he just cooked on Twitter and/or Instagram.

“Usually I just want to go out there,
have fun, play basketball and
dominate. But guys usually have a
tendency to have something against me,
so they will be extra-physical or they
will just like talking trash to me.
And it just elevates my game even more
and makes me want to dominate them,”
Embiid said. “It makes me want to kick
their ---. So I can go on social media
later and basically talk ----.

“That’s what I did… It’s all fun. To
me I’m just trying to have fun. But
these guys, I guess, they get their
feelings hurt and there’s nothing you
can do about it,” Embiid added. “But
at the end of the day it’s all fun and
if you want to take it off the court
and keep beefing that’s your problem.”

While centers such as Hassan Whiteside and Andre Drummond have fallen victim to Embiid’s on- and off-court exploits, the most infamous social media attack came against LaVar Ball, father of the Lakers’ rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, and notorious Big Baller Brand campaigner.

Embiid said he marked his calendar for the Sixers’ game at L.A., in which he went off for 46 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and seven blocks, after LaVar Ball went on the radio in Philadelphia and criticized Embiid and the 76ers organization. The Sixers center said he’s actually “a big fan” of Lonzo Ball but was inspired for more obvious reasons.

“I couldn’t wait to play, just to show
the Lakers fans and LaVar that I can
actually play. I don’t think he was at
the game, but I’m sure he saw that I
could actually play,” Embiid said. “I
just had to take a shot after the game
and — not call him out, but basically
have fun.”

Sacramento Kings' Frank Mason III shoots against the Golden State Warriors during the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

The days of DNP’s and watching NBA games exclusively from the bench may be over for former Kansas All-American Frank Mason III.

A rookie second-round pick for Sacramento, Mason has experienced an escalation in opportunity of late, playing 20-plus minutes in six of the Kings’ seven previous games.

Though the 23-year-old point guard has only appeared in 14 of 21 contests entering Friday’s game at Chicago, Sacramento coach Dave Joerger has made Mason a regular member of his rotation off the bench the past couple weeks — even going as far at times as to play Mason over the team’s No. 5 overall draft pick, De’Aaron Fox, late in games.

Joerger referred to Mason as a “stud muffin” earlier this week, and that was before the backup guard from KU scored a career-high 14 points and dished 4 assists in the Kings’ surprising road win over Golden State (without Kevin Druant and Steph Curry).

"He's tough and he picks guys up. He
gets in the lane and he makes plays,”
Joerger said of Mason. “He can shoot
it a little bit. ... I'm a big fan of
his, and I look forward to coaching
him for a long time, hopefully."

Since Mason became a regular contributor, over the past seven games the 5-foot-11 reserve has averaged 8.9 points, 4.3 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 21 minutes a game, while shooting 49% from the field, 6-for-8 on 3-pointers and 10-for-11 at the free-throw line.

It’s a far different role from the first few weeks of the season, when Mason didn’t even play a single second in seven of Sacramento’s first 12 games.

“I played 15 minutes a game, and I
thought I should be starting as a
freshman but Coach (Bill Self) thought
different,” Mason remembered. “So I
just played the role of coming off the
bench and I think I was pretty good.
Sophomore year I adjusted and
started.”

Sooner or later, Fox will become the point guard Sacramento envisioned when the organization took the 6-3 19-year-old from Kentucky as a lottery pick this past June. In the meantime, Mason has a chance to not only gain experience but prove to the Kings he belongs on the court just as much as Fox will.

Sacramento (6-15) is in the very early stages of a youth movement overhaul centered around Fox, Willie Cauley-Stein, Skal Labissiere, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield. It’s easy to project Mason as a key cog within that group moving forward.

KU fans witnessed how Mason’s methodical dedication made him supremely more effective over the years. That’s not to say he’ll be an NBA all-star in a few seasons, but Mason seems too quick, too good a shooter and too determined to be passed over — just as he’s shown in the first month and a half of his professional career.

Joel Embiid once again reminded the NBA of his massive potential Wednesday night in Los Angeles, where Philadelphia’s 7-foot-2 phenom cooked the Lakers for a a career-best performance.

Still in just his second season out of Kansas, Embiid’s new personal bests of 46 points, seven assists, seven blocks, 14 made field goals, 16 made free throws and 19 free-throw attempts — the do-it-all center grabbed 15 rebounds, too — fueled a 115-109 road win for the Sixers, who improved to 8-6 on the season.

“I was just playing basketball
basically,” Embiid told The
Inquirer’s Keith Pompey. “They
just kept throwing the ball to me in
the post. And I kept finding new ways
to score the ball and I went to the
free-throw line. That’s where I was
best at last year. I felt like today I
did a great job.”

Added the confident 23-year-old: “And
with me using different moves and
attacking them, they didn’t really
know what to do.”

Most teams fall into that category of getting lost trying to stop Embiid. According to Synergy Sports Technology, the multi-skilled big man, who also shot 2-for-3 from 3-point range versus the Lakers, is the league’s best post-up player. He averages 8.6 points a night on post-ups in a modern NBA moving away low-block one-on-ones as an offensive staple.

Joel Embiid has been the @NBA's most prolific post up scorer by a significant margin, here's a closer look at the league's top back to the basket threats, 4 of whom also make 1+ 3-pointer per game. pic.twitter.com/LtW2Tb9VFE

Per Synergy, Embiid shoots 60 percent when single-covered in the post.

In his post-game television interview — after stopping to show some love to Philadelphia’s smallest big fan, Kevin Hart — Embiid said staying assertive keyed his ridiculous production.

“I did the same thing against the
Clippers,” Philly’s biggest big said,
referencing a 32-point, 16-rebound
night two days earlier in which the
man known most for missing games due
to injuries and having his playing
time restricted tallied a career-high
36 minutes. “I just wanted to come out
and get down low and be a beast down
there.”

Embiid, who had to spend the majority of his offseason resting and recovering from a knee injury said he still isn’t up to speed from a conditioning standpoint, and estimated he is at about 69 percent on that front a little more than a month into the season.

That’s a frightening idea for the rest of the league, considering what Embiid and likely Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons already are doing to teams.

“It’s just not us, you’ve got to put
it on our teammates, too,” Embiid
said, crediting Robert Covington and
J.J. Redick, as well as coach Brett
Brown and his staff.

The Sixers, so bad for so long throughout “The Process” that landed them Embiid, Simmons and currently injured No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz, have won seven of their last nine games.

“We still have a lot of work to do,”
Embiid said.

The 23-year-old from Cameroon became the first NBA player with 40-plus points, seven-plus assists and seven-plus blocks in a game since another Sixers legend, Julius Erving, did it in 1982.

Joel Embiid is the first NBA player with 40+ points, 7+ assists and 7+ blocks in a game ... since Julius Erving in 1982. pic.twitter.com/6P0f0cJK4l

Embiid, averaging 23.0 points, 11.2 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 51.6-percent shooting this year, in 29.0 minutes, has played in just 43 games over the course of the past two seasons after missing his first two seasons due to injuries.

His health remains the biggest “if” in the NBA. But if Embiid can put those devastating injuries that sideline him for months behind him (everyone knock on the closest piece of wood you can find), he looks to be on a trajectory to become one of the league’s most dominating players.

Maybe that Andrew Wiggins guy will turn out to be worth every penny of his recently inked five-year, $148 million extension.

While most sports fans nationally were locked in to an NFL Sunday and those locally obsessed over the Kansas basketball team’s Border War exhibition victory, an off-the-radar NBA game between Minnesota and Oklahoma City showcased Wiggins’ still-bright longterm future.

Moments after the Thunder’s Carmelo Anthony hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, the T’wolves, scrambling with no timeouts to use, got the ball in bounds to Wiggins. One Karl-Anthony Towns back-court screen and four dribbles later, the 22-year-old Canadian wing was pulling up a good six feet behind the top of the arc to bank in the game-winner.

While you might call the successful buzzer-beater lucky, Wiggins did plenty leading up to the decisive shot to put his team in prime position for a valuable Western Conference road win.

The highlight-worthy 3 to beat the game clock to 0:00 capped a 27-point performance in which he shot 10-for-20 from the floor, grabbed seven rebounds, passed out four assists and came away with two steals. Wiggins’ 2-for-7 shooting from 3-point distance was the only part of his stat line that didn’t impress.

Averaging 24.7 points and shooting 49.1 percent from the floor three games into his fourth season, Wiggins has helped Minnesota to a 2-1 start with quality victories over Utah and OKC. According to NBA.com, he’s the youngest player in Minnesota history to score 20-plus in the team’s first three games.

The Timberwolves are gunning for the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2003-04. They’ll rely on Wiggins’ scoring, for sure. But they’ll be in even better shape if he can help out on the boards, move the ball and try to become a lockdown defender, as well.